Flexible by design

Danny Smith reckons he can count on two hands the number of times he had a breakthrough at work – a big idea, problem solve or capability stepchange – as a result of a scheduled meeting.

“Literally the hundreds of others are just by accident,” says the CFO of Wellington-based edutech firm Storypark.

“They were a chance encounter in a meeting room after the meeting had finished, or a coffee where I was talking to someone about a problem and they're like, ‘oh, I've actually got a similar thing, but it looks like this from this angle’.”

“And then you brainstorm on that idea in that third space and you come up with something you were never going to get individually, but then you'd also never be able to actually schedule that particular solve to happen then.”

The ‘third space’ Smith talks about is a concept drawn from early childhood education; it refers to fostering a space, through play and interaction, in which two children can come together and learn and grow in ways that neither would on their own.

And it’s also applicable in the workplace, he says.

“By creating this culture where there’s a little bit more deliberate collision, in a nice way, and these incidental interactions, you can create opportunities for connections and ideas,” he explains. “So over here, there is one person's idea, which was also like another person's idea, and it's actually through the connection that it creates a much richer third idea and a different approach to problem solving.”

Trouble is, such collisions are hard to engineer when people are working from home and managing their own workflows and workloads.

“It’s a world where everything is very fragmented; I might be doing a really deep-thought task that needs intense concentration, and someone else wants to just spitball a bunch of ideas about something completely different that’s at a different point in my day or week.”

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Doing the right work at the right time in the right place

Around 20 percent of Storypark’s 60 employees are remote workers, mainly its teams in Canada and Australia, as well as some located outside of the capital. The remaining 80 percent cover a span of flexibility from part- to full-time roles and a mix of working from home and from its Wellington office.

As in most workplaces, flexibility at Storypark has been driven to this point by what suits individual employees, but as it moves into next year the company is introducing a more designed approach.

“We’re wanting to make it a lot clearer that it's not just about where you work, it's actually the type of work you’re doing, the rituals, the communication flow, and even the physical spaces that we have that can lend themselves to different types of work and workflows.”

“We're slowly introducing it so at least twice a week, everyone is in the office. We're not going to dictate what days … but when you're there, anticipate that the work is going to be a little bit different to what you might be doing when you're working from home and then encouraging the teams that they work within to be together.”

“So if it's an engineering team that might be in the office together, for example, it’s encouraging them to orchestrate their day by coding through a bunch of problems, or designing on a bunch of screens or developing out solutions … And then when they’re doing the remote work from each other you can be more headphones on, dedicated, focused.”

Smith anticipates this more intentional approach to flexibility will deliver a “massive productivity and effectiveness uplift”, but as an education-focused company he also sees it playing a role in supporting the new generation of employees.

Those who have entered the workforce during and post-pandemic have missed learning some “real fundamentals of how to work”, observes Smith, while working largely on their own from home.

“That cohort of humans will be the engine room for growth in two or three years’ time for every business around the world, but don't necessarily have all the skills of being a productive and happy, thriving employee in any business yet – it's not innate … Anyone who can thrive in a working from home environment right now probably didn't learn those skills whilst only working from home.”

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Clearly communicate the ‘why’ of flexibility arrangements

As part of designing its flexible work arrangements, Trade Me now asks managers to be in the office full time when their new hires start, after it saw some clear trends emerging when managers continued to work from home.

“We tracked and monitored what it was like for new people starting and we had a really high churn of people after three months,” says Annie Brown, the company’s chief people officer. “And it was all because they weren't getting that engagement and connection and [sense of] being tied into the team. It was just so clear. It was really frightening.”

Although Trade Me has more than 500 staff, Brown says flexible working poses challenges for effective staff connection, communication and collaboration no matter what size of the organisation.  

“For a startup, it must be even more challenging because they're making such dynamic, fast-paced decisions to get things up and running, and they're working hard to create a new product that's going to market. That's tough to do when you're scattered and you're not all in the same space.”

Emerging research on the wider and longer-term impacts of flexible work and working from home, says Brown, is highlighting it’s not all upside, indicating some negative impacts on mental health stemming from being ‘always on’ and reduced social interaction.

“At Trade Me, we have been really deliberate and designed a model of flexibility that is super clear, because what we found is that clarity for people was the most important thing – they needed certainty in this really strange new way of working.”

When it comes to ‘rules’ around flexible working, Trade Me has adopted a team-led model, where each team decides what days they come into the office and to do what type of work.

“What that did was allow them to feel in control of it and to get the balance right, but also to be super clear that actually we're all in on the same day. So it wasn't individually driven, it was team driven and it was driven by what kind of work they do.”

“Working in a tech company, you can't control and dictate; it just doesn't work with this audience. You have to give them a really clear ‘why’, but also a really clear model or format.”

All jobs at Trade Me also fit into one of four modes, to help clarify where employees stand on the flexible working continuum.

‘Nesters’ are office based, usually because their role requires it (such as looking after the physical workspace); ‘flexi nesters’ make up about 85 percent of staff, who work in some form of the traditional hybrid in-office/work-from-home model; ‘roamers’ work remotely outside of one of the company’s hubs in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch; and ‘nomads’ can work for the company from offshore if they meet certain criteria.

Brown says Trade Me has also worked hard to make the workplace more welcoming for those accustomed to the comfort and convenience of working from home by supplying simple foods like Vogel’s, porridge, avocados, noodles, fruit and other snacks. It’s also focused on optimising the physical workspace, grouping areas of work in ‘neighbourhoods’, using the Robin app so staff can book a desk (if they like to sit in the same spot, or want to try out a different view) and creating a variety of spaces fit for different tasks.

Rituals are also important to get everyone together; there are fortnightly all-company lunches, for example, and Friday night drinks are now monthly “but more of a celebration party and a bit more epic than they used to just be”, says Brown.

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Overarching principles, but co-designed by teams

Kalyn Ponti (KP), CEO of employee experience and HR consultancy Humankind, says flexible work arrangements are now among the top three issues for both employers and employees.

While conversations usually centre on the work-from-home versus in-office question, flexibility encompasses many other factors, such as full-time versus part-time work, job sharing and hours of work.

But she says fundamentally many employers are asking the wrong question about flexible work.

“We're seeing leaders ask the question, ‘what is the right model for us?’ And actually the question should be, ‘how do we design for productivity and for our teams’ experience and engagement?”

KP says the organisations that are most successful with their flexible work arrangements are those who are “starting with overarching principles in the organisation, but then really letting leaders work with their teams to design or determine what works best for that team”.

“In the startup environment, it's hard because now this actually feels like an extra thing for leaders to manage – you have to be deliberate about it. So if you can get a few people across the team who are thinking about it and that really understand the context, it will save you a lot of time down the path.”

She says designing key rituals – such as huddles, all hands and quarterly catch-ups – into flexible working arrangements can help employees stay connected to strategy and purpose.

And with many young employees wanting opportunities to learn and develop, ensuring their managers, or another relevant person, are onsite to onboard them in person (as Trade Me does) is another recommendation.

Importantly, she says, keep testing and iterating your arrangements to see what works for your team and what doesn’t.

“Taking a co-design approach [with employees] really allows that flexibility. I think the biggest point is it's very legitimate to have people come into the office, it's just really sharing why, what is the reason?”